Ethics

Judge Allows Suit Against Yoo to Go Forward

By Ed Brayton

In a very important ruling, a federal judge in California - appointed by George W. Bush - has rejected a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Jose Padilla against John Yoo for authoring not only the torture memos, but specific memos authorizing his own detention without any rights whatsoever. Padilla is an American citizen who was later convicted on conspiracy charges. See the full ruling here.

This case did not technically involve the state secrets privilege because, as the court notes, that privilege is "impossible to assert on behalf of a non-governmental party." But Yoo did make an argument that the court said "amounts to an assertion of the state
secrets privilege," saying that allowing the case to go forward would harm national security. The court rejected that argument:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on June 16, 2009 (boomark / email).